In case you thought the Trump administration was only using the impeachment proceedings to barf all over the Constitution, think again. The target now: Trump’s old nemesis, Birthright citizenship. They don’t want the “wrong” people getting it.
On Thursday the Associated Press reports that the Trump administration is imposing new rules aimed at targetting “birth tourism,” the supposed practice of foreign nationals traveling to the US to have children who will be US Citizens due to birthright citizenship.
Birthright citizenship is the constitutional provision that stipulates anyone born in the US is a citizen. It is born of the 14th Amendment to the Bill of Rights, which was ratified after the civil war and is the basis for most civil rights constitutional cases. It reads in the relevant part: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Donald Trump, who does not understand the constitution, law or executive orders has long wanted to end this because it, of course, provides a way for people he doesn’t like – the children of immigrants – to become citizens and also then extend that citizenship to their parents. “Birth Tourism” may well be an issue, but the real point of these regulations is xenophobia and a desire to keep people out of America.
Which brings us to the new regulations proposed by the Trump Administration. The new regulations will deny Visas to pregnant women unless they can prove they must come to the US to give birth for a medical reason and can pay for it, or they have another compelling reason to give birth here beyond wanting their child to have a US passport.
The officials who spoke to the AP about this claim that consular authorities making these decisions will not proactively be asking women if they are pregnant or have reason to believe they may be pregnant, but will only get into these questions if they have reason to believe a woman is pregnant.
Also, this rule won’t apply to the 39 countries enrolled in the Visa Waiver program. Those countries are mainly European and Asian, with the only exceptions being Chile and Australia and New Zealand. So this new rule will affect visitors from places like Africa, Latin America, China, and Russia.
This is just one more glaring instance of the Trump administration’s xenophobia and racism and the Donald’s quest to build up and then attack immigrants and non-Americans as boogie men coming into the country to steal from hard-working “real Americans.” The rules have not yet gone into effect but we’re sure they won’t be the last time Trump targets citizenship for political points.
(via: HuffPo, image: Pexels)
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